Speaking to TMZ earlier today, Elliot Seymour confessed that he was paid $15,000 to go down due to a body shot in the second round of Rourke’s return to the ring — 10K up front and the rest when he returned to the U.S. Seymour additionally stated that he was specifically told not to hit the 62-year-old actor in the head, but that he also did not believe Rourke was in on the fix.

“Mickey’s a stand-up guy.” said Seymour. “Being a powerful person, you have a lot of people that are kissing up to you for various reasons.”

True to his word, Jamie Varner was more than holding his own against Drew Dober at UFC on FOX 13 last weekend until bad luck befell him. While attempting to slam Dober to the mat, Varner pulled a Maynard and unintentionally knocked himself out, only waking up to find himself in a fight-ending rear-naked choke.

It was a particularly tough loss for Varner, being his fourth in as many contests and coming in front of his hometown crowd, and one that signaled that perhaps the game had passed by the former WEC champ. So for the second time, Varner called it quits in his post-fight interview, stating that it was a decision he had been planning to make for some time.

In an interview with media members after the fight, Varner expanded upon his reasons for retiring, what the future holds for him, and perhaps most importantly, the idea of starting a fighter’s union. Join us after the jump for the full interview.

If Rousimar Palhares cranks a kneebar after his opponent taps out and nobody’s there to see it, does it still produce outrage?

Well, the jury is still out. You see, Rousimar Palhares fought Jon Fitch at WSOF 16 for the promotion’s welterweight championship. Just one problem: UFC on Fox 13 happened last night during pretty much the same time slot. The event, featuring the likes of Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem and Nate Diaz, had enough star power to completely eclipse poor WSOF.

The UFC crowned its first women’s strawweight champion last night. Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas tore through the cast of The Ultimate Fighter season 20 and met one another in the finals.

Namajunas had a great showing in the first round, but in the second and third, Esparza’s wrestling and power became too much for Namajunas to handle. She took Namajunas down at will and controlled her easily, eventually taking her back in the third round and securing a rear naked choke.

Earlier this week, CagePotato contributor Trent Reinsmith asked us to consider whether perennial lightweight contender Nate Diaz might secretly be a hell of a lot more cunning than we give him credit for. The main takeaway from you readers seemed to be that the article was “retarded”, “fake”, and also “gay.” Quite the cunning linguists, you guys are. #wordplay #layers

While initially skeptical myself, I was at least willing to hear Trent out, as my own recent revelation about Tito Ortiz has forced me to reconsider that any and every MMA fighter might be some kind of evil genius beneath all the punch drunk slurs and mispronounced maxims.

Until about an hour ago, that was, at the UFC on FOX 13 weigh-ins. Scheduled to face Rafael Dos Anjos in a pivotal lightweight matchup, Diaz showed up a whopping 5.6 pounds overweight and, in a shocking twist, appeared to give less than zero fucks about it. I’m just saying, if I spent a year-long hiatus from my job complaining about not getting paid enough, I sure as hell wouldn’t force the athletic commission to deduct 20% of my paycheck upon my return. So let’s all just go ahead and put that debate to bed.

It might not be as devastating as Theo Michailidis’ KO of Corrin Eaton, but the spinning elbow knockout Jordan Cameron scored on Luke Mark Catubig at the debut Hex FS event in Melbourne, Australia this past weekend was arguably just as flashy. Besides, it’s the second spinning elbow KO we’ve brought you in as many days, so what are you complaining about?

I don’t know anything about London-based featherweight Theo Michailidis, other than the fact that he’s fought a bunch of guys with charmingly foreign names. (Kenzos Xristos! Giorgi Papuasvilli! Alex Bilobrovaka!) Last Saturday at BCMMA 9, Michailidis took on the relatively normal-named Corrin Eaton, and blasted him in the jaw with a devastating spinning back-elbow near the end of the first round. Eaton stiffens up and falls directly backwards; falling tree knockout has been achieved. Also, I think the ref’s t-shirt says “MAKE TEA NOT WAR,” which is 1) incredibly British, and 2) kind of unexpected in a combat sports setting.

Heading into the Tatneft Cup 2015 finals last weekend, Serbian K-1 champion Ljubo Jalovi had compiled a 22-8-1 record with a ridiculous 95% knockout ratio. Paired up against Israeli K-1 champion Alex Trofimov — who himself holds an 88% KO ratio — it was safe to say that not many were expecting the fight to go the distance. They were not disappointed.

After a break in action midway through the first round, Jalovi loads up on a flying knee from halfway across the ring that drills Trofimov square in the jaw. Trofimov goes down faster than your mom after a couple glasses of pinot grigio and is probably still telling his family that he can’t wait until he fights in the Tatneft Cup 2015 finals this weekend. (They want to tell him what happened, but don’t have the heart. Not yet.)